Flying Pig XXVI Event Recap

April 5-7, 2024

  • Friday: Middle Distance at Camp Friedlander, Loveland, OH
  • Sat/Sun: Two Day Classic at Hueston Woods SP, Oxford, OH
    • 2024 OUSA Masters Nationals
    • 2024 JWOC/WUOC Team Trials
  • Host: Orienteering Cincinnati
  • Event Director: Mike Minium
  • Course Setters:
    • Friday: Shinichi Shimizu
    • Saturday: Dylan Poe
    • Sunday: Mike Minium
  • OUSA Course Consultant: Peter Goodwin
  • Registrar: Guy Olsen

Results, Photos & Maps

April OUSA Forum: Youth Mapping Program

Please join us this Thursday, April 11th, for a presentation and discussion about Orienteering USA’s Youth Mapping Program (YMP).

The presentation will take place on Google Meet at 8:30pm EDT and can be accessed at: https://meet.google.com/ama-bpex-yrv

Our goals are to introduce orienteering to as many youth as possible, to develop orienteering mappers, and to create small teaching maps to start new orienteering programs in schools and other youth-serving organizations. We aim to support the first 3 of the 4 elements of OUSA’s mission.

Who should attend:

  • Aspiring map-makers, interested in being able to make your own maps for training with friends or for your club, the YMP can provide mentorship. 
  • Small clubs without resources to adequately respond to queries from local schools.
  • Larger clubs looking to form connections with local educators.
  • Orienteers who want to see our sport thrive.

You can learn more about the YMP on the OUSA website: https://orienteeringusa.org/resources/ymp/

2024 AF JROTC Orienteering Nationals Event Recap

February 24-25, 2024

Thanks to Gord Hunter (SOAR) for this recap of the 2024 Air Force JROTC Orienteering Championships

The 2024 AFJROTC Orienteering Nationals have come and gone. Most reports I have heard judge it to be a success. I’ll take their word for it as I was too personally involved to offer an impartial opinion.

{Click photo for more images}

By the numbers we had just under 100 AFJROTC cadets from nine schools in five states participating. The smallest school team was one cadet from a school in Texas. The largest school team, a team from Florida, had 29 entries.

The presence of the event prompted two schools in Florida and one in Maryland to start participating in local events. The others were already doing so.

The event attracted the attention of the local tourism authority which agreed to donate to Suncoast Orienteering a set amount of money for each room-night booked in their county. The tourism authority is called Florida’s Sports Coast. How appropriate!

The host hotel sold out for the nights of the AFJROTC championships and were very happy with the crowd and the deportment of the cadets.

For Saturday evening entertainment Suncoast Orienteering offered a taste of night orienteering for the participants. One hiccup occurred when the local park authority would not give us an exception to the rule of ‘no stakes in the ground, no postings of any kind. No problem. Eight leaders, family supporters were recruited to act as control stands and hold the markers and SI boxes. The event was low-key and social. No winners were declared but each team got a printout of their split times.

Who won the Orienteering Nationals?

Team Trophies:

  • Gr 9/ Freshmen: 1) West Nassau 2) Citrus 3) River Ridge all from Florida
  • JV: 1) West Nassau (FL) 2) Etowah (GA) 3 Citrus (FL)
  • Varsity: 1) Etowah (GA) 2) West Nassau (FL) 3) Waller (TX)
  • Overall: 1) West Nassau (FL) 2) Etowah (GA) 3) Citrus (FL)

Individually gold medals went to:

  • Varsity Male: Connor Lawlor, Etowah (GA)
  • Varsity Female: Annabella Chavez, Waller (TX) who on Day 2 won by an incredible 19 minutes
  • JV Male: Shelton Fine, West Nassau (FL), a 24-second victory over Justus Francis of Wekiva (FL)
  • JV Female: Faith Harris, Crest (NC), a four second victory over Kira Stroschein of West Nassau (FL)
  • Gr 9 Male: Nello Humphrey, West Nassau (FL)
  • Gr 9 Female: Gabby Pottinger, West Nassau (FL)

The list of people to thank would be long but here goes:

Mark Berlinger and his staff for permission to hold the event at Starkey Park and for getting the park ready to receive us.

Blaik Mathews of Florida Orienteering for getting out of a sickbed to come time our event and provide the popular Livelox service.

Kayla Getz of Florida’s Sports Coast for helping us in so many ways.

Krista Simone of New Port Richey’s Comfort Inn and Suites who made sure our visitors were housed and comfortable.

The staff at the Comfort Inn breakfast who did their best trying to keep up with dozens of hungry teenagers

Mike and Nicolas Engestrom for help setting out and picking up controls as well as helping register and launch or public entries.

Former JROTC Champ. Robert Weller who showed up to orienteer but also ended up picking up a lot of distant controls from the Saturday competition.

Rob Haddow of Ottawa, Canada a snowbird orienteer who stepped up to check control locations and make course suggestions.

The booster clubs of Suwannee HS JROTC (Saturday) and Citrus HS (Sunday) who provided food and drinks for all. Thank you, parents and volunteers.

And finally, Wayne Barron of the AFJROTC national headquarters who accepted an idea from a complete stranger, put faith in the idea that we could make a better attended AFJROTC Orienteering Nationals at a better price for the participants than could happen elsewhere (and we still made money doing it). Wayne provided communication support and ideas for the event. His office also chipped in a prize for the winning Overall team.

Gord Hunter
Suncoast Orienteering
Event Director

Columbia Gorge Classic Event Recap

March 22-24, 2024

  • Friday: Middle Distance NRE
  • Saturday/Sunday: 2-Day Classic
    • including 2024 OUSA Junior Nationals
  • Host: COC
  • Venues:
    • Fri: Frenchman Coulee, George, WA
    • Sat: South Quincy Lakes, Quincy, WA
    • Sun: Bishops Land, Quincy, WA
  • Event Directors: Michelle Kastner, Ing Uhlin, Chris Cooper
  • Course Designers:
    • Fri: Chris Cooper
    • Sat/Sun: Will Enger
  • Event Website
Yeah, I lifted these directly from the TeamUSA blog, but I took the pictures so I guess it’s cool…

Results, Photos & Maps

2024 WOC Selection Criteria Announced

The 2024 Sprint World Orienteering Championships (WOC) will be hosted in Edinburgh, Scotland, from July 12-16, 2024.

Orienteering USA’s WOC Review Panel (RP – Peggy Dickison, Tyra Christopherson, Jeff Saeger, Glen Tryson) will choose up to 3 (three) male and 3 (three) female athletes to represent the USA at WOC, in addition to the one male and one female already selected by winning the NAOC sprint in 2023. Using the same selection criteria, the WOC RP may also choose alternates who will step in, should the need arise.

There will be two official Team Trials.

  • Sprint Scotland will be held in Glenrothes, Scotland (north of Edinburgh), on May 4-5, 2024. This event consists of three sprint races, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. All three are individual start races.
  • Sprint Storrs will be held in Storrs, Connecticut (University of Connecticut) on Saturday, 11 May 2024. This event consists of two sprint races, an individual start race in the morning and a mass-start race in the afternoon.
  • Note to Petitioners: Petitioners who cannot attend either Team Trials events will be required to register for the Sprint Storrs Team Trials as Non-Compete and fill in the declaration page.

To be considered a candidate for 2024 WOC Team Selection, a WOC candidate must meet the WOC eligibility requirements and also declare their intent to seek selection to the team.

Candidates should refer to the Full WOC 2024 Selection Criteria document which can be found in the Orienteering USA Library.

OUSA seeks input on Junior Nationals Club Team proposal

The Orienteering USA Board is considering a proposed rule change to club team eligibility and composition for Junior Nationals in 2025. We conducted a test of two possible team and scoring variations during Junior Nationals in 2024:

  • In the first, orienteers from the same club who were registered in Interscholastic or Intercollegiate categories were eligible to participate on a club team in their category regardless of whether they were also on a school team. 
  • In the second, orienteers from the same club who were registered in Interscholastic or Intercollegiate categories were eligible to participate on a club team spanning all categories regardless of whether they were also on a school team. 

We want your opinion. Please share your thoughts here. See this document for the full report and the experimental scoring results for each variation.

2024 Junior Nationals at Bishops Land

Trail-O Standing Team Applications Now Open

Applications are now open for the TeamUSA Trail Orienteering Standing Team. The application link will stay active for another week until Monday, April 8th.

However, if you are interested in representing US in the trail orienteering European championships (ETOC) in Turku, Finland May 8th -May 12th please fill in your application for the standing team as soon as possible. Preferably this would be done by Monday Apr 1st, as the team size deadline for ETOC in Apr 8th.

Fill out the Team Application here.

Orienteering USA rules stipulate that all National team members must complete SafeSport training.  There is also a link to this training in the application form.

Here is the language in OUSA rules regarding the standing team:

  • G.4.4 The U.S. Trail Orienteering National Team shall be composed of a maximum of 10 applicants from each class who meet the following conditions:
    • a. Have full passport qualifying citizenship for the United States.
    • b. Regular member of Orienteering USA in good standing.
    • c. Agree to be an active part of the team.
    • d. Participate in Team discussions, elections, and fundraisers.
    • e. Agree to represent the USA in International Orienteering Events (if selected and available).
    • f. Subscribe to the Official Team communication channel.
  • G.4.5 The top five highest ranked applicants of each class from each of the PreO and TempO ranking lists shall be automatically selected to the team. Any remaining spots will be filled by the ESC using a combination of the PreO and TempO ranking lists.  In the event that fewer than 10 applicants for the team in a class have a valid ranking, the ESC may, at their discretion, name non-ranked applicants to the team.

As a member of the standing team you are eligible to wear US National team uniform in any US Trail-O event

Sincerely,
Mika Latva-Kokko
Trail-O ESC

Orienteering USA WTOC 2027 Interest Survey

Orienteering USA is currently considering submitting a bid to host the World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC) in 2027. We would like to determine whether we have the minimum necessary team to support this event as well as what geographic part of the country is best prepared to host.

Whether you are a veteran trail orienteer or a newcomer to the discipline of Trail Orienteering, we welcome your input. Let us know if you are interested in helping to bring WTOC to the US or have some great ideas of a venue near you that would be ideal for Trail-O by filling out this brief survey. Thank you in advance for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

Photo courtesy Natashza Figiel, WTOC 2022

International Ski Orienteering wraps up season in Estonia

Event writeup courtesy Carl Fey

Several US Ski-orienteers took part in the ski-orienteering races in Haanja, Estonia February 23-25, 2024 which included the World Cup Final, the Open Nordic Junior Meeting in Ski-Orienteering. The World Masters Ski-Orienteering Championships, and some open races for others. The organizers had difficult conditions to deal with as it was +1 to +5C all week and the snow was melting in front of our eyes. Given the difficult conditions, the experienced Estonian organizers did a great job. In recent years Estonia and Latvia are probably the countries which have progressed the most in ski-orienteering with increasing good results and breath.

Veteran Sharon Crawford had her normal strong performances and won good metals in all of the races in D80—sprint, middle, and long. Sharon commented, “The races were very difficult technically. I found the swamps especially challenging. The skiing was fun but really treacherous.” In H55 Carl Fey was 7th in the Sprint, 6th in the long, and 9th in the middle. Carl commented, “these were very difficult races technically in terms of both skiing and orienteering. I especially enjoyed the rolling winding downhill trails through the woods requiring good skiing skills. The organizers did a good job to make choosing the best route choice difficult”

In the Open Nordic Junior Meeting H18 class Erik Fey (USA) was 12th in the sprint and 7th in the medium. In the long he raced in the H16 class which was not part of the Nordic Junior Meeting and won. In the long race Erik arrived at the finish totally soaking wet from his waist down after having skied across a lake which had much standing water on top of it which got sprayed all over him by his skis. After the races Erik commented, “I am really happy with my long race. The medium race was really interesting. In the H14 open class (not part of the Nordic Junior Meeting) Mark Fey (USA) was 5th in the sprint, 3rd in the long, and 2nd in the medium. When asked about the races Mark commented, “It was very exciting to take part in my first international ski-orienteering races. The orienteering was quite difficult. I really liked the fast steep downhills.”

The World Cup did not have any US participants with some US Ski-O team members taking part in the American Birkinbiner ski marathon which occurred in the US at the same time. The sprint races were won by Niklas Ekstrom from Finland and surprise winner Judith Traubaite from Lithuania. The pursuit races were won by Niklas Ekstrom from Finland and Anna Ulvensoen from Norway. In the middle distance the crowd went wild when home favorite Daisy Kudre Schnyder from Estonia won the women’s race. The close race in the men’s class was also exciting with Evert Toivonen finishing just one second ahead of Jorgen Baklid. Norway was excited to win the overall team competition for the 2024 season.

The events ended with the organizers arranging a very nice banquet. Two highlights of the banquet were a ski-o triva quiz which among other things featured a ski-o map from Craftsbury which people had to identify what country it was located in. Most of the participants thought it was located in Norway…. Local dancers also taught participants some Estonian dancing. Sharon Crawford was a popular participant in the dancing where it was uncovered that she had done square dancing as a child.

March Forum: Alternative Course Formats

Are you looking for new ideas to spice up your next local event? Next month’s Orienteering USA forum topic will feature Alternative Course formats and will take place on Tuesday evening, March 12th at 8:30pm EST.

Mary Jones from Orienteer Kansas will present some ideas from their Explorer course which is offered at all of their regular events and is designed as an introduction to orienteering for beginners of all ages. Joseph Huberman from Backwoods Orienteering Klub will discuss the Fox Chase format that is used at some of their events.

We are still looking for a couple more folks to round out the panel so if you have a unique twist on the standard course formats that you’d like to share with the orienteering community, please contact Joseph Huberman @ vpclubs@nullorienteeringusa.org.

Everyone including organizers and participants is encouraged to join the discussion in two weeks on Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/ama-bpex-yrv. You can catch previous monthly forums you may have missed over on the Orienteering USA YouTube Channel.

Orienteer Kansas – New Year’s Day O’ at Rock Haven (via OK Facebook Page)